The Sleepwalker

Inspired by a conversation about my sleepwalking episodes as a child. Hope you enjoy.

Her earliest memories of being a sleepwalker was from childhood. She couldn't distinguish between a dream and reality. There were times when she'd come to her senses and get disorientated. On this occasion she came around with a dog barking at her. This was a neighbour's dog, feared by the children in the community - and here she was staring at the dog and looking spaced out. She heard someone call her name and looked up to see a security guard (watchman) looking at her puzzled. She just stared back confused, trying to figure out if she was asleep or awake. The racket from the barking dog jolted her back into reality and the next thing she knew, she was screaming blue murder. As a result, all through her childhood, she had to sleep under bolt and lock watched by her best friend Fury, a golden spaniel. Fury, enjoyed the occasional nighttime encounters where she'd just sit and feed him the choicest meat from the cooking pot.

Then she went to boarding school. On her school application form, her parents notified the school of her condition and requested special treatment which the school thought was rather unusual. They were used to requests like special diets, allergies, odd phobias, and disabilities where they had in place special measures to cater for, but not for sleepwalking. This was a first and the only thing they could do was to put her in a dormitory watched by the dorm matron. The arrangement worked for the first two terms of her first year. Or so she thought, because a few odd things like muddy feet, dirty bedsheets and unexplained scrapes on her leg proved otherwise. She had strange and terrifying recollections of walking to the school chapel alone to play the organ. Other times being in the school kitchen staring at cauldrons of foaming beans and other prepped up meals for school dinner the following day. The most terrifying recollection was walking into the cold room of an uncompleted modern dining hall kitchen. She could only remember her adventures as dreams or nightmares, so to speak, which sometimes sent shivers down her spine. As a person, she was slight in stature, shy and timid by nature, and wouldn't attempt some of the feats she so easily accomplished at night when sleepwalking. She was perpetually puzzled and often haunted by her dreams, or was it? She was assigned to a school psychologist who concluded that her subconscious was drawn to things that terrified her in real life and the school must remain vigilant.

It was the final term of the academic year and exams was in full swing. She couldn't recall any episodes of her nighttime rendezvous in a while. Her minders were staying up late, sometimes past midnight to catch up, doing last minute revisions for their final exams and so she was left unhindered to the mercy of the elements. They were responsible for her safety and with their minds focussed on preparing for exams, simply forgot about their responsibility. The boarding school used to be a Basel missionary compound. It was situated on a hill surrounded by trees and drying streams. Pythons used to slither and sleep around these streams but their numbers had depleted over the years as the streams dried out. However, it was a no go area for the students as it was considered sacred to the village below the hill. As usual it happened like a dream. She found herself at the bottom of the hill by the school well. It was a cold and windy night as it had rained all morning. The moon was out but blanketed by the occasional thick grey cloud which allowed it to shine through every once in a while. Toads were croaking loudly and it was completely dark with flickering fireflies and chirping crickets. On this occasion, she woke up. She couldn't move because her pyjamas was caught in a thorny thicket which pierced her legs. Or was it a python? She let out a scream for help which echoed and reverberated up the hill and down the valley. The seniors studying in the nearby classrooms looked at each other glaze eyed and sat up straight when they realised what that could be. Their worst nightmare had been realised and their sleepwalking ward had finally been caught.

Author's Note

Please